20.07.2024 – Amadeus Live, Wrocław

As part of the 24th edition of the mBank New Horizons IFF and on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the premiere of Amadeus, we invite you to an extraordinary film screening. Miloš Forman's 8 Oscar-winning masterpiece can be seen on the big screen in HD quality. The film's soundtrack will be performed by the 100-plus-member ensemble of the Cracow Philharmonic Choir and the Beethoven Academy Orchestra under the baton of Ernst van Tiel, a prominent Dutch conductor specializing in film music concerts. The super-production will be screened on July 20, 2024 during the 24th edition of the mBank New Horizons IFF at Wrocław's Centennial Hall. Tickets for Amadeus Live: a screening of Miloš Forman's film with live symphonic music and choir are now available.

The evening at the Centennial Hall is a tribute to the famous work, which tells the story of the clash between two composers: a cheerful, vulgar genius (Tom Hulce as Mozart) and a haughty, talentless envy (Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham as Salieri). Amadeus will seduce not only music lovers and lovers of classical music, but also all viewers who love cinema and want to participate in a unique celebration of one of the most acclaimed films of the 20th century.

Amadeus highlights the contrast between, as the play's author Sir Peter Shaffer himself described it, “the sublimity of Mozart's music and the plaintive buffoonery of his letters,” which “sound like something written by an eight-year-old.” Salieri, the Viennese court composer, is overwhelmed with jealousy when he discovers that the divine musical gifts he has coveted all his life have been given to the bawdy and playful young composer. Salieri decides to destroy Mozart, while at the same time unable to tear himself away from the wonderfulness of his music. The scenery of 18th-century Vienna (the film was shot in Prague's Old Town), the dazzling costumes and hairstyles, the cinematography by Miroslav Ondříček, and the screenplay by the author of the original play, Sir Peter Shaffer, add up to a timeless, thrilling spectacle. Amadeus is a film-opera, impressive in its momentum, vision and timeless tale of human passions and weaknesses. It was honored with Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Production Design, Costume Design, Makeup and Sound. The film's success cemented Forman's status as one of Europe's and Hollywood's most prominent directors.

Wroclaw thus joins an elite group of cities (including Tokyo, Toronto, Seoul, Paris) participating in the Amadeus Live project. The world premiere of Forman's film with live music took place in 2016 at London's Royal Albert Hall.
The conductor of the original music score for Amadeus, Sir Neville Marriner, said that “the most important thing for him was that the music should present itself flawlessly, not only technically, but also as a perfect complement to what we see on the screen. You can't trim songs to fit the film. One of the good things about Amadeus was that the film was shot to music, not the other way around, as is usually the case."
The musical score for Amadeus includes many of Mozart's most famous compositions, including Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Symphony No. XXV in G minor, The Marriage of Figaro and the Requiem in D minor.

Recorded in 1984 by the orchestra of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under the baton of Sir Neville Marriner, the soundtrack to Amadeus reached No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Albums Chart and No. 56 on the Billboard Popular Albums Chart. To date, more than 6.5 million copies of the album have been sold and it has received more than 13 Gold Records in countries including the UK, Canada, Singapore and Malaysia, making it one of the most popular classical music recordings of all time. Amadeus also became the first classical music album to reach the popular charts in Australia, France, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Amadeus is a screen triumph, an epic vision of the past and a heavenly celebration of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The film is shown with Polish and English subtitles.
Running time: 3 h (including a 20-minute intermission).
(Source: mBank New Horizons International Film Festival)